Oxygen concentrators have become used extensively for supplying oxygen-enriched gas to respiratory patients, particularly those requiring relatively high oxygen concentrations in a breathable gaseous mixture over extended periods of time. Because oxygen concentrators deliver a breathable gas of between about 80-96% oxygen from atmospheric air, thereby eliminating the requirement of bottled gas, oxygen cylinders, and the like, they have found substantial appeal especially in the home care field.
In my aforesaid prior co-pending application Ser. No. 396,705, there is described an improved oxygen concentrator which monitors the oxygen concentration of the product gas and rate of product gas withdrawal, and makes necessary adjustments in the timing cycle to achieve necessary minimum oxygen concentrations. In the concentrator of my prior application Ser. No. 634,595, the apparatus automatically adjusts itself for minimizing power consumption.
Often there are a number of factors which may need to be considered by a technician in evaluating the performance of the concentrator, especially in anticipating malfunctions or sieve bed deterioration in performing preventative maintenance. In addition, because of the cost of making service or maintenance calls on concentrators installed in homes, particularly in rural or remote areas from the service center or dealership, remote performance monitoring and diagnosis of the apparatus is of particular interest.